Editorial

YouTube ban — three years on

The ban has deprived millions of Pakistanis of access to information, educational material and entertainment

Editorial September 16, 2015

The ban has deprived millions of Pakistanis of access to information, educational material and entertainment. PHOTO: AFP

It has now been three years since YouTube disappeared from our country’s computer screens. The Senate committee on information and technology recently recommended that the ban on the video-sharing website be lifted immediately. The committee was informed that the ban had been placed on Supreme Court orders and could not be lifted without the permission of the apex Court. Last year, another Senate committee on fundamental human rights had also advised the lifting of the ban in order to give people free access to information and entertainment. Various experts have advised the same and presented their perspectives before the court. There had been talk of reviving YouTube after making arrangements for removing blasphemous content on the website. Experts in internet technology, including the organisation Bytes for All, have pointed out that this is a virtual impossibility. YouTube itself is reluctant to allow itself to be censored in any way and attempts at agreement between it and successive federal governments have not led anywhere.

The point to be made is that the ban has deprived millions of Pakistanis of access to information, educational material and entertainment. As Senator Afrasiab Khattak has pointed out, the website has not been blocked in other Muslim countries. Yes, the content of the blasphemous video, which led to the ban in the first place, is offensive but it goes without saying that the huge majority of Pakistanis would not opt to view it if the ban on YouTube was lifted. There is plenty of other safe material on the website of benefit to students, teachers, professionals and many others. Given this, it makes no sense at all to keep the ban in place. If other nations are able to ignore offensive, insensitive material on the website, we should be able to do the same as well. Depriving people of access to YouTube causes far greater damage. A way has to be found to solve the problem and restore one of the world’s most popular websites, which has been blocked in the country since 2012 without anything that can count as solid justification.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2015.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.

COMMENTS (8)

Rao | 9 years ago | Reply I am not from the left/right wing and Just the human being. Ban on Youtube is wrong but this is not the only source of infotainment. World is so big if someone is willing. Logics given behindd the ban are unnecessary as if I want to see hate speech then there are so many sites now in cyberket. Cheers and find your way.

Ali | 9 years ago | Reply Totally senseless to ban youtube. By the way everyone in Pakistan has ways of accessing youtube but the ban needs to be removed.

VIEW MORE COMMENTS

Zayed Hamied | 9 years ago | Reply Saif Ali Khan's Phantom will be available in YouTube today or tomorrow, so it is very important to retain the ban......

Asif Jamil | 9 years ago | Reply The ban on YouTube in Pakistan cannot be justified under any circumstances. It is not banned in any Muslim country, as far as I know. I lived in Saudi Arabia and it was freely available there. It has immense educational and entertainment value for all ages. The majority should not be deprived due to objections from small minded and ill informed minority. Pakistan should move forward and develop an educated and enlightened society, not go back to time of ignorance. It is the responsibility of the government to meet the legitimate wishes and requirement of the people.

Manofsteel | 9 years ago | Reply We all Pakistanis should come together and request New GOOgle Indian CEO Excellency Sundar to Please remove that controversial videos.... As Few senator and politions are sleepless without it...

Ibrahim Aurakzai | 9 years ago | Reply Honestly, it doesn't even matter if they lift the ban or not at this point. YouTube's Android app is accessible and most of the usere use proxies to access YouTube. The only appreciation after lifting the ban will be that we won't need proxies to access YouTube.

numbersnumbers | 9 years ago | Reply YouTube will remain blocked in Pakistan because the government is counting on the right wing religious parties vote bank, and thus will not do anything to upset them! The absurdity of this farce is that the government has PRETENDED that there was no way to filter content on YouTube, which must make all the OTHER Muslim countries laugh since THEY have all installed localized YouTube hubs for their countries to control available content YEARS AGO!

Wajid | 9 years ago | Reply My mother is 66 years old. She was visiting me in US when I taught her to use YouTube app on iPad. Within a month, she got hooked to it. She loved watching movies on history of Islam, prophets, biblical stories, tours of historic religious sites around the world, lectures by her favorite speakers, Iranian movies and last but not the least, Coke Studio Pakistan. She is religiously inclined so that's the kind of content she watched. Imagine her shock when I informed here that YouTube won't be working on her iPad when she goes back to Pakistan. It was the first time she learned about the ban. I hope the concerned authorities can see this comment, and realize how ridiculous this ban is in this day and age.

Replying to X